Just perusing my Facebook and Twitter feeds this morning, and seeing a LOT of April Fool's posts from businesses. For example, YouTube is shutting down after 8 good years; Google has a new scent project out in Beta form called GoogleNose, and Twitter now costs $5 a month if you want to use vowels.

These and many other pranks are seeing a lot of traffic and a huge number of shares. Businesses can definitely get in on this to get fans' attention!

What kind of pranks are you…

Hybrid wave raises marketing questions

March 28, 2013 - 2:23 pm ET

The wraps came off of the 2014 Infiniti QX60 Hybrid Wednesday afternoon in New York,…

GRAPH SEARCH: FACEBOOK GAME CHANGER!



Facebook has recently come out with an update that will change the way a billion+ users interact with each other on the social site. Facebook Graph Search allows users to easily find information based on their friends’ interests, likes, and comments.
 
Content that users share is currently seen for less than four hours, but Graph Search changes that.

Now, searches will yield a wealth of information more easily, and Facebook recommendations…

Maybe it's just me, but it seemed like the Super Bowl ads were a little skimpy this year, and not as creative as years past. Less companies participated, and the ones who did seemed to have either put less thought into their commercials, or are possibly reading their audience incorrectly. I didn't feel particularly inspired to try a new product this year, as opposed to being pushed to think about products in a new light in Super Bowls of yore.

This makes me wonder: was this just an…

Just read this article from Anne Fleming of Women-Drivers and wanted to share with you.  What is your dealership doing to focus on the female buyer?

 …

According to an AutoNation study, U.S. auto sales are expected to hit the mid-15 million unit range in 2013, thanks to a stabilizing housing market and strengthening economy.

As the positive economic outlook encourages potential clients to consider a new or pre-owned vehicle in the new year, how is your dealership focusing its campaign accordingly? What do you think will be most important to highlight: resale value, safety features, excellent gas mileage? Are consumers looking for…

With the holiday season coming up fast, now is a great time to think about how you're leveraging holidays to further your social media presence. 

Here's a great example of what one dealer did to celebrate Veteran's Day:

What are you doing for event marketing these days?

Here's a great example of a strong dealership marketing program that results in the participation of about 300 people, and shows community support by tying the program into a charity.

October is PINK month - anyone going PINK to support breast cancer prevention and awareness? I'd love to hear…

Great article recently published in The Car Connection: "Car Customers Hate Haggling More Than Anything." It might seem obvious, but sometimes dealerships can get caught up in the sales game, and forget that customers are so disinclined to participate. Getting a great price for the customer while also turning a profit for the company is a high priority (and rightly so) but a new survey found that the one thing customers hate above all else is negotiating the price of their new…

The other day I was reading the latest headlines on automotive advertising strategies, and came across this post:

"Porsche Makes Direct Mail Personal…And A Little Bit Creepy"

Have you all heard about this? An ad agency named 'Low Roche' recently helped one of its clients, a Porsche dealership, get a 32% response rate on a 'mailer' -- using some very…

Just saw this article on Business Exchange about Nissan's "Most Innovative Year Ever." The company is really delving into social media to help promote five new vehicle launches. The article makes a good point: it's not so much the social platform that's important (Twitter & Facebook are in their heyday now but may be replaced or become less popular as time goes on), but rather the use of social media in general that's important. Now that fans and clients are accustomed to interacting…

Sharing a really interesting article I came across today on Business Week - the high cost of 'rework and redundancy' in the automotive industry. It is important to stay current on the latest innovations, and investing in research to grow the industry is important. But as this article opines, sometimes it can get out of hand, going from innovative to redundant. The infographic is particularly worth checking out.

What do you all think? At what point should automotive researchers stop…

Saw this post on Smart Money and wanted to share it with my dE followers: what do you think about the article's opinion that investors should bet on Google, rather than Facebook?

And what does this mean for those of us in the automotive industry -- many automotive companies use both platforms effectively, but the debate continues over which platform has better long-term potential - in this…

According to a recent Credit Suisse report, Smartphone sales are expected to reach the 1 billion mark in 2014! An estimated 472 million smartphones were sold globally last year, accounting for 31% of all mobile devices sold.

(You can read the study here if you're interested: http://reut.rs/IlSEMU).

A lot of the demand is driven by China and the cheaper smartphones now flooding the mobile market. Global sales of smartphones will top 1 billion…

Interesting article from autonews.com this week: a(nother) new piece of technology has just been introduced by TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.: an in-vehicle touch-pad sensor that can read letters and numbers drawn with a finger. The premise here is to allow drivers to do more with less distraction.

Most of us spend a large amount of time in our cars during the week, and we all want to multitask while we're in them. Emails, phone calls, and notes don't stop just because we're behind the…

As "Official sponsor and exclusive automotive partner" for wildly popular entertainment group Cirque du Soleil, Infiniti Automotive group is effectively reaching a very broad range of possible customers. Their luxury vehicles are well known in the auto sphere, but by partnering with Cirque du Soleil, Infiniti is hoping to draw even more attention to its latest models, in a far showier space than, well, the showroom. They are debuting their all-new 7 passenger crossover with the performance…

The following is a great article from women-drivers.com, speaking to dealerships about the power of being women-friendly.

What are you and your team doing to target the female consumer?

Top 10 Certified Women-Drivers Friendly™ Dealers in the US

 

The female consumer has spoken and out of 1300 dealerships in the United States receiving reviews, the Top 10 Certified Women-Drivers Friendly™ Dealers are in for 2011. The Certificate…

Facebook Fan Pages are changing on March 30th - get prepared!

1. Start with your cover

Your cover photo is the first thing people will see when they visit your Page. The new Fan page resembles the recently launched Personal page “timeline” look.  Choose a unique photo and change it as often as you like. A horizontal image will work best.  Pick a unique photo to feature at the top of your Page timeline.  Note: This space is not meant for promotions, coupons, or…

Warm congratulations to Kelly Automotive, winners at the state level of the prestigious Dealer of the Year award given by Dealer Rater! Chris Saraceno (L)  and his team worked tirelessly this year to go above and beyond their customers' expectations, and their efforts definitely paid off!…

This Friday's social media tip comes from the old expression......

"It's all about the 3 L's: Location, Location, Location."



The real estate industry has used this expression for eons as a way of putting a value on a piece of property. "Prime real estate" is dependent largely upon where it is located, and the kind of person who buys it is…